New York · NYSED
K-12 accounting software built for New York districts.
Spire Ledgers ships pre-configured for New York State Education Departmentcompliance — the Uniform System of Accounts for School Districts (USASD) — NYS Office of the State Comptroller; ST-3 Annual Financial Report (USASD (current edition)) chart-of-accounts code structure, fund codes, and every required report. The right configuration loads automatically when you pick New York during onboarding.
Account-code structure (NYSED)
NYSED requires a specific multi-segment account code on every transaction. Spire builds the right structure for you.
| Segment | Digits | Description | Citation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fund | 1 | Single-letter fund identifier (A General, C School Lunch, F Special Aid / Federal, H Capital, V Debt Service, TA Trust & Agency, TE Private-Purpose Trust). | USASD Chapter 2 — Fund Structure |
| Function | 4 | Four-digit account code identifying the activity (e.g. 1010 Board of Education, 1240 Chief School Administrator, 2010 Curriculum Development, 2110 Teaching - Regular School, 2250 Special Education, 5510 District Transportation). | USASD Appendix — Account Code Listing |
| Object | 1 | Single-character object/expense element appended after a hyphen (.1 Personal Services, .2 Equipment, .4 Contractual, .8 Employee Benefits). | USASD Chapter 3 — Object of Expenditure |
| Location / Building | 3 | District-defined location code identifying the school building or cost center. | USASD Local Use Segment |
| Source | 3 | District-defined funding-source identifier (federal grant, state grant, local) for SED reporting. | USASD Local Use Segment |
Fund registry
Spire ships a complete, audit-ready fund registry for New York — including federal Title programs, state allotments, debt service, capital projects, internal service funds, and GASB 84 student activity custodial funds.
General Fund
General Fund — Part-Town / BOCES Component
School Lunch / School Food Service Fund
Miscellaneous Special Revenue Fund
Special Aid Fund (Federal & State Grants)
Capital Projects Fund
Debt Service Fund
Permanent Fund (Endowment)
Enterprise Fund — Adult Education / Community Service
Internal Service Fund — Self-Insurance / Risk Retention
Private-Purpose Trust Fund (Scholarships)
Custodial Fund — Agency (Payroll, Withholdings, Extraclassroom Activity)
Investment Trust Fund
Pension Trust Fund (OPEB)
Required reports
Every NYSED mandatory financial submission, generated from your live ledger and exported in the format the SEA accepts.
ST-3 Annual Financial Report
AnnualElectronic financial report of revenues, expenditures, fund balances, and debt filed with the NYS Office of the State Comptroller within 60 days of fiscal year end (extendable to 120 days).
General Municipal Law §30; Education Law §2116-a
Annual Audited Financial Statements (GASB 34) — Aud-100
AnnualIndependent CPA audit per GAAS/GAGAS, filed with NYSED and OSC, including MD&A, fund/government-wide statements, and required supplementary information.
Education Law §2116-a; 8 NYCRR §170.2(r)
Property Tax Report Card
AnnualSchool district must publish proposed budget, projected tax levy, enrollment, and reserve balances at least 24 days before the budget vote.
Education Law §1716; 8 NYCRR §170.18
Tax Cap Reporting Form
AnnualCalculation of the maximum allowable tax levy under the 2% Property Tax Cap (Chapter 97 of the Laws of 2011), filed with OSC, NYSED, and the NYS Department of Taxation and Finance.
General Municipal Law §3-c
SA-111 / General State Aid Claim Form
AnnualAnnual aid claim used to compute Foundation Aid, Building Aid, Transportation Aid, BOCES Aid, and other formula aids.
Education Law §3602
SAMS — State Aid Management System Submissions
Recurring (varies by claim)Online claims for Building Aid, Transportation Aid, BOCES Aid, Excess Cost Aid, Hardware/Software, Library Materials, and other categorical aids.
NYSED State Aid SAMS Manual
Schedule of Expenditures of Federal Awards (SEFA) / Federal Single Audit
AnnualRequired when federal awards expended meet or exceed the Single Audit threshold (FY-dependent: $750K pre-2024-10-01, $1M after — see 2 CFR §200.501(a)); submitted to the Federal Audit Clearinghouse and NYSED Grants Finance.
2 CFR 200 Subpart F
Extraclassroom Activity Funds Audit
AnnualSeparate audit of student-organization funds held by the district as custodian, per the Regulations of the Commissioner.
8 NYCRR §172
BEDS (Basic Educational Data System) — Institutional & Personnel
Annual (Oct)Personnel master file, course/teacher assignment, and institutional data submitted to NYSED.
Education Law §215
SIRS (Student Information Repository System) Submissions
Multiple (Fall / Mid-Year / EOY)Statewide student-level data repository used for accountability, assessment linkage, and federal EDFacts reporting.
NYSED SIRS Manual
Reserve Fund Reporting (within ST-3)
AnnualDetail of statutory reserves (Capital, Repair, Workers' Comp, Unemployment, Liability, EBALR, ERS/TRS Sub-Reserves, Insurance, Tax Certiorari).
General Municipal Law §6-c through §6-r; Education Law §3651
Long-Range Financial Plan / Multi-Year Financial Plan
Annual (Best Practice / Required for Fiscally Stressed)Multi-year projection required for districts in OSC Fiscal Stress Monitoring designation; recommended for all districts.
OSC Fiscal Stress Monitoring System
ERS / TRS Reporting — NYSLRS / NYSTRS Member Contributions
Monthly / QuarterlySalary, contribution, and service-credit reports to the NYS & Local Retirement System (non-instructional) and NYS Teachers' Retirement System (instructional).
Retirement & Social Security Law; Education Law Article 11
New York-specific compliance
- New York's 2% Property Tax Cap (General Municipal Law §3-c, enacted by Chapter 97 of 2011) limits annual school-district tax-levy growth to the lesser of 2% or CPI, with statutory exclusions (PILOT changes, certain pension-rate spikes above 2 percentage points, capital expenditures from voter-approved bonds, court orders/judgments). Override requires 60% supermajority of voters.
- School-district budget vote: districts must hold an annual budget vote on the third Tuesday of May. If defeated twice, the board must adopt a contingency budget that cannot exceed the prior year levy (0% growth) and must conform to contingency expenditure rules under Education Law §2023.
- Fund A (General Fund) cannot have an unassigned fund balance exceeding 4% of the next year's budget (Real Property Tax Law §1318); excess must be applied as revenue to reduce taxes.
- BOCES (Boards of Cooperative Educational Services): districts purchase shared services from BOCES under Education Law §1950. CO-SER expenditures qualify for BOCES Aid in the following year.
- Statutory reserves (GML §6-c through §6-r, EL §3651): Capital Reserve (voter-approved), Repair Reserve, Workers' Compensation Reserve, Unemployment Insurance Reserve, Liability Reserve, Insurance Reserve, Reserve for Tax Certiorari, Employee Benefit Accrued Liability Reserve (EBALR), Retirement Contribution Reserve (ERS Sub-Reserve), TRS Sub-Reserve.
- Account-code structure example: A2110.130-01-000 = Fund A (General), Function 2110 (Teaching - Regular School), Object .130 (Instructional Salaries), Location 01, Source 000.
- Object codes: .1 Personal Services (.130 Instructional, .150 Non-Instructional, .160 Substitute), .2 Equipment, .4 Contractual & Other, .8 Employee Benefits (.810 ERS, .820 TRS, .830 Social Security, .840 Workers' Comp, .860 Health Insurance, .890 Other).
- Extraclassroom Activity Funds (TA fund) require annual audit and operate under the 'Safeguarding, Accounting and Auditing of Extraclassroom Activity Funds' (the 'Pamphlet 2' / Finance Pamphlet) issued by NYSED.
- Building Aid: capital projects require a SED-issued building-project number and approved 'Apportionment Notice' before aid claims can be filed via SAMS.
- Foundation Aid is the principal state operating-aid formula (Education Law §3602(4)) and was fully phased in beginning FY 2023-24.
- Fiscal Stress Monitoring: OSC scores districts annually on financial and environmental indicators; designations of Susceptible / Moderate / Significant Fiscal Stress trigger additional reporting.
Official New York resources
Related states
K-12 accounting compliance profiles for districts in neighboring states:
Other states: New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Vermont. See all 50 states →
New York districts can run on Spire today.
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